Multidisciplinary care in a Private Hospital setting

March, 22 2017

Many people still believe that comprehensive brain tumour treatment can only be received in the Public Hospital System or at one of the affiliated comprehensive cancer centres. Not so! At the Epworth Hospital in Richmond VIC, Australia’s largest private hospital, brain cancer and brain tumour patients also receive state-of-the-art and multidisciplinary care from leading neurosurgeons, and medical and radiation oncologists, with input from our neuroradiologists and neuropathologists. The group has access to specialists utilising cutting-edge technologies in surgery and radiation, and to specialists involved in both established therapies and those being trialed in an attempt to push the envelope of care for these complex patients and conditions.

I have successfully surgically treated a wide variety of brain masses at the Epworth, from simple cysts, to benign and malignant tumours, and skull base tumours. I chair the neuro-oncology multidisciplinary team (MDT) meeting there, and carried out Epworth’s first series of awake craniotomies. For such surgeries, we routinely use neuronavigation, intra-operative direct cortical micro-stimulation, and real-time testing, to reduce the chances of any neurological side-effects from surgery, A REAL ADVANTAGE over traditional “asleep” approaches.

The advantages of Private care at the Epworth for brain tumour patients are that they can:

Choose their surgeon;

Access modern, comprehensive and personalised care;

Be treated in a comfortable, modern and luxurious hospital setting (e.g., our Lee Wing);

Receive in-patient rehabilitation under the same roof, to optimise their recovery;